"The word 'listen' contains the same letters as the word 'silent'."It seems so obvious and simple really, but silence is so important. The silence in music often conveys as much as the notes. It is in the silence that I do my best thinking, best writing, and best observing. I also can't help but think this is important to convey in the classroom as I teach kids how to speak with others and to actively listen.
So, silence seems like a good topic for writing this week. I hope you will join me in writing about quiet this week. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
Amen! Silence is becoming increasingly hard to come by. I will try to write a quiet poem or a quiet scene in my book. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHi, Tricia! I pledge to stretch with you every Monday this summer...starting with a cheat! This poem is from a couple years ago when a kindergartener told me, "I can sing the Alphabet Song in silent language." Then she signed A-Z along with her song.
ReplyDelete*******************
Secret clutched in a closed fist:
If you wait one pinky moment
Letting sounds slide towards your thumb,
Eventually they perch like birds on a fence,
Nesting two together on a quiet egg
Till it cracks, and a beak of song breaks through
Yay, Heidi! "Beak of song" is really great. As are kindergarteners.
ReplyDeleteNever
It’s never really quiet.
Even when I sit
on the back steps by myself
I can hear a bird calling
to his friends and a little wind rustling
through the crab apple tree.
The bees are exploring
the foxglove and daisies,
the bumblebee loudest
of all as he waggles
his fuzziness.
People noises, too—
Nick and Sam shout
away down the block
playing basketball in the driveway
like they always do
and Mrs. Davis sings along
to the radio. Inside my house
Dad clatters around the kitchen.
The TV talks, trying
to get me to buy something.
But I am out here looking
for silence. You can’t buy that.
—Kate Coombs, 2014
all rights reserved
Inspiring, Heidi and Kate! I wrote a few months ago, but it fits the topic well:
ReplyDeleteCITY OF BIRDS
No sooner had the kestrel over Boston Common fell,
So fiercely like a bomb it made a jogger twist away,
Than toddlers strapped in double-strollers, twins, began to yell,
"Bird! A birdy! Mummy! Daddy! Look! A bird!" for they
Had seen Make Way for Ducklings statues, paddle-boated swans,
Tossed fat pigeons cookie crumbs on Public Garden lawns,
And there the fallen falcon stood, an unexploded shell,
Atop a cabbie’s orange roof—a chipmunk for his prey
Was hooked and dead already—daring any to dispel
That battery of silence over all of us held sway.
© 2014 Steven Withrow, all rights reserved
Posting this here has allowed me to make some key revisions and to re-appreciate the fact that this is all a single sentence and has a nifty limited rhyme scheme (note the differences from the version above):
ReplyDeleteCITY OF BIRDS
No sooner had the kestrel over Boston Common fell,
Fiercely, like a bomb, making a jogger twist away,
Than toddlers strapped in double-strollers, twins, started to yell,
"Bird! A birdy! Mummy! Daddy! Look! A bird!" for they
Had seen Make Way for Ducklings statues, paddle-boat swans,
Fatted pigeons maundering on Public Garden lawns,
And there the fallen falcon stood, an unexploded shell,
Atop a cabbie’s orange roof—a chipmunk for his prey
Was hooked and dead already—daring any to dispel
That battery of silence over all of us held sway.
It Takes. . .
ReplyDeleteIt takes one rooster
to call up the sun,
one robin
to pipe up a worm,
It takes one peeper
to bring in spring,
and one angry word
to silence a child
for good.
©2014 Jane Yolen all rights reserved
Thanks to Kate Coombs for helping me fix the tense error in line 1:
ReplyDeleteCITY OF BIRDS
At evening rush, a kestrel over Boston Common fell,
Fiercely, like a bomb, making a jogger twist away,
Then toddlers strapped in double-strollers, twins, started to yell,
"Bird! A birdy! Mummy! Daddy! Look! A bird!" for they
Had seen Make Way for Ducklings statues, paddle-boat swans,
Fatted pigeons maundering on Public Garden lawns,
And there the fallen falcon stood, an unexploded shell,
Atop a cabbie’s orange roof—a chipmunk for his prey
Was hooked and dead already—daring any to dispel
That battery of silence over all of us held sway.
Steven, your poem makes me think of a book I read recently, Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park by Marie Winn. It's all about birds and birdwatchers in NYC, with an emphasis on the hawks that nested on the side of a big condo tower.
ReplyDeleteThought you might like to see how I revised my poem:
ReplyDeleteIt Takes. . .
It takes one rooster
to call up the sun,
one robin
to pipe up a worm.
It takes one peeper
to bring in the spring,
One bull
to call in a herd.
But to silence a little child
for good,
it takes only
one angry word.
©2014 Jane Yolen all rights reserved
What fun to see revisions and to read the poems ... and to have some summer time off work to stretch. Mine came from a list poem I wrote yesterday (thanks to The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach, mentioned here earlier this year) and fits the "quiet" theme nicely.
ReplyDeleteWhat You Will Need
A body of water
A day not too hot
A pole not too heavy
A light, long string
A worm and a hook
The stomach to pierce a small, squirming thing
A boat
Or a quiet spot
A pleasant companion
Or none
Attention to pay
Patience to wait
and wait
Eyes to see the bobber bob or the water move
Hands for tugging and reeling a catch
A mouth to exclaim
Or breath for a sigh
The will to take startled creature in hand
The skill for dislodging sharp things
The hunger to take up the club and the knife
Or the heart to give it all back
A body of water
A pole and a string
A pleasant companion
Or none
The words to tell and tell the tale
Or the memory to keep,
alone
© 2014 Stephanie Parsley
QUIET AND CONTENT
ReplyDeleteSnuggled against our chestnut brown
breakfast nook Grandma reads an
article in the daily rag about school funding
while I browse through my iPad to find
pictures of fireflies for my science project
with only the hum of our refrigerator
keeping us company.
(c) Charles Waters 2014 all rights reserved.